I was inspired by all the other entries in the contest and thought of this one late last night. Good fun. I like when I have an idea, sit down and make it happen. Everything just comes together in a rush and boom, I've just given birth to something that didn't exist before. Before this was a gray and brown photo of an industrial welder that I once used for a corporate ad for a client years and years ago.

There are a bunch of solid entries in this contest and who knows who will eventually "win". I have nothing to do with that decision and I always feel the same way about contests - whatever. You can't think about them, or worry about them, or let them bother you. I've won contests I barely tried and entered at the last minute and I've lost them when I poured my heart and soul into an entry, and vice versa. Art. Everyone has their own opinion.

To everyone that entered I would like to say, well done. You inspired me and I believe you have inspired many others. It is rare to see an Eve Fan Art contest get this many entries, so that is very exciting. I wish you all the very best of luck and would like to encourage each of you to continue. The greatest gift you can give an artist is encouragement and support. And all of you have mine.

Someone once tried very hard to kill the artist inside of me. And while they failed miserably, it has taken me years and years of hard work to overcome and break thru the other side. I still struggle with it and probably always will. But what they failed to understand (and probably still do) is that it won't die. Because I won't let it.

I'm an unbiased comic book geek, I enjoy Marvel, DC, and lots of others. Always have. The "house" has never really mattered to me as much as the stories and the creative teams working on them. I admit to growing up in my early years primarily on Marvel Comics, but this was back in the rotating rack in the corner store days - so my choices were rather limited. Once the comic explosion happened in the early eighties - everything changed.

I would like to live in a world where all the comic movies rule. I'd like to enjoy well crafted and well told stories featuring great heroes and awesome bad people. I don't really care if they are Marvel/Disney, DC, or Marvel/Fox, or whoever.

Having said all of that the new Justice League trailer has me worried. Eight months out from November and they decided to drop this thing, probably before it was 100% ready. The CGI effects on Cyborg look like they need some more work. But even beyond that this thing has some areas that give me pause and cause some concerns.

Once again we are looking at Zack Synder directing and right off the bat that can be a hit or miss proposition, mostly miss lately. While I enjoyed huge chunks of Man of Steel, overall the movie was more fail than failure. Some truly odd choices that didn't make much sense. And BvS last Spring was just a holy mess of mistakes compounded on top of each other. Again, some of it wasn't horrid, but the overall story was just so lame it doesn't matter. Parts of it physically hurt to watch.

With all of that in mind, some concerns. This still "looks" like BvS, same grimdark lighting and de-saturated color schemes. Some '300' style studio stage looking green screen work. And a huge pile of CGI work. One wonders if the Sun ever shines in the DC Universe? I get that we have a few jokes thrown in to lighten things up and they work, just like anyone with any intelligence at all could have guessed - but everything still feels extremely heavy and self-serious. There is a weight to everything that feels self-imposed and that comes with a certain level of danger for this movie. Frankly if it plays things much like BvS did its going to be raked over the coals. Even if it doesn't deserve it.

Aquaman and Wonder Woman are awesome.

Like I said, eight months to go and maybe things will look better as we go along. Hope so. Right now I'm excited for the movie, just hoping it is much better than the last two entries in the DCU.

A week from today Liz and I will be jetting across the night sky towards the land of fire and ice once more to attend Eve Fanfest, see all our friends, and visit a country we fell in love with back in 2015. So much has happened since our last visit it feels like a lifetime ago. I think this is why we are so anxious to go back this year. After years of turmoil and fighting the good fight (and losing it) our lives are finally starting to feel like normal lives again. Plus, so much of that last Fanfest was eaten up by those posters. Store signings, media, player presentation, roundtable, dinners, lunches, more signings, more media, more meetings, so much of my time was devoted to promoting them. It felt rushed and cramped. Not complaining here, I'd do it again in a second. It did feel rushed though.

But this time I've tried to scale back on the activities. No player presentations this year. Just fun stuff. Because of all that activity last time we missed the Tweetfleet Meet, so we can do that this year. We missed the Pub Crawl, so we can do that this year. And I'll be able to attend more presentations and more fun Eve stuffs this time.

MOAR FANFEST! That's the theme this year.

We are bringing some swags with us this year. We are not rich peoples, but we've pooled our resources and saved our pennies to bring along some tasty freebies as a thank you to all of you for your support over the years. Despite what some people would have you believe, we do appreciate you. And while writing and drawing and podcasting and video-making and all of that is one way I can show my appreciation, another way is by handing you something at Fanfest that we made and paid for ourselves.

So if you see me please feel free to come up to me and interrupt whatever it is I am doing. I heard from so many people last time that I didn't get to meet because they were shy, or didn't want to interrupt, or whatever - don't do that. Seriously, I do not mind at all. I really don't.

Sadly I did not bring enough for everyone. With thousands of attendees at Fanfest it would be impossible for me to lug that much swag around. We tried our best but we really only have a fraction of that. So please don't feel bad if we've run out, or if you only get one piece. We're going to try and stretch them out so that the maximum number of people can get something from us.

Die-Cut Rixx Art Tristans!

MOAR Fanfest, MOAR Friends!

I'm really looking forward to hanging out and enjoying Fanfest this year. I'm sad that certain people are not able to attend and they will all be missed, but I am also excited that certain other people will be there this time - so it all kinda balances out. I wasn't able to attend last year and I hope people missed me.

In all seriousness, here they are and I hope you enjoy them. I'll be editing a new episode of After Hours this weekend, so that will hopefully be out early next week. Until then, get your Rixx Fixx with these two excellent and completely different podcasts.

I always found it surprising how few people ask for military hats for their avatars. It happens, but not that often. So yesterday when CCP Frame asked for a "anything you want" hat, his avatar was perfect for it. Not to mention monotone and with a cigarette hanging from his lip. It was his request that I sign it also, hence the concept of signature hats.

What are signature hats? Mostly likely they are hats with my signature on them.

I haven't seen this piece in probably twenty years. Its from 1983 or 1985 and probably the first large sized painting of a spaceship I ever tried. I know I had been drawing spaceships, and other things, for much longer. But this was an airbrush and pastel painting. You have no idea just how much I hated airbrushing.

I have no recollection of working on this. During this period of my life I was cranking work out left and right, trying to find my way. My style. My voice. Anything. So I make no claims as to the subject matter, because I simply don't remember. This may be an original, or I might very well have been using someone else's work as practice, or inspiration, or a launching point. Who knows.

It was good to see it again and realize that it wasn't lost to time. To be honest it is rather horrible. Looking back on old work is like watching yourself talk to a girl for the first time, its awkward, slightly embarrassing, and you could do so much better now.

So over the past few days we've had a rather messy and confusing incident in Stay Frosty. It really isn't worth going into details, but essentially someone outside the Corp accused someone inside the Corp of violating a 1v1. After that it gets confusing, angry, and sad. Lots of things happened, none of which involved any drama, and it turns out that the accuser is probably lying anyway.

But the eve mails are amazing. I'm going to share the string with you, but in fairness to all involved I will change the names.

Hi Rixx,

Hope you're well. I'm writing to issue a complaint about members of ST-FR who gave me their word and then broke it. I'm not sure if this matters in ST-FR but i hope it does. NAME and I were about to have a 1v1 duel when I discovered a unique rat in a belt in Oulletta. Since i was a member of ST-FR (albeit for one day), I offered to let him join me on the condition of not getting others to jump me, and then we would continue our 1v1. We go kill the rat, which i tanked, and he took the loot (a Barghest blueprint) then proceeded to attack me. I figured our 1v1 started so I engaged.

A navy domi SFSenior then jumps in and neuts me and they proceed to pummel me to death. I don't care about losing the ship, although it was worth about 1.5 billion with fittings. I'm disappointed that our 1v1 was not honored tho. Genuinely thought better of ST-FR than that.

Person,

Honoring 1v1s is a core tenet of Stay Frosty and as such we take it rather seriously. I understand that you have already been compensated for your loss and the offending party has been dealt Pirate Justice.

Fly safe,

Rixx

Rixx,

Frankly, i'm less concerned about myself as I have plenty of ISK. My bigger concern is that a friend invited me into his corp, and it is a new corp, and that 1v1 violation put a 1.7 billion isk loss on our killboard. On the one hand I get that if you're not ready to lose a ship, don't fly it--totally true. But again, reasonable precautions WERE taken here. It was not just NAME--it was also SFSenior.

Let's be honest--NAME was insignificant. SFSenior was the reason we're having this convo right now. Even when I told SFSenior that we had a 1v1 it was completely ignored. It took me a long time to die, SFSenior had ample opportunity to see if i was telling the truth. Why should he be let off the hook? It was because of SFSenior's inappropriate inteference with a neuting navy domi that I lost a ship that could easily have tanked NAME.

I would like to ask that either SFSenior be punished for making no effort to verify my claim of a 1v1, or that something be done to balance the 1.7 billion isk killboard loss for my corp. I understand fully that I'm proposing not-insignificant things here, but my CEO is very frustrated with me now because of this.

Alternately, SFSenior can fit a billion worth of fittings and allow one of us to pop him. If that's too much, then maybe an alt of SFSenior. He shouldn't be let off the hook.

Person,

I think you may have misunderstood my previous message. So let me reiterate that this is internal Stay Frosty business and your part in it has ended. Whatever compensation has been afforded you is the end of the compensation afforded you. SFSenior will not be punished by anyone. Nothing will be done about the supposed 1.7b. And a member of Stay Frosty will fit up a ship to be exploded on purpose WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER JITA!

If you feel wronged please feel free to seek your revenge against Stay Frosty. Our pilots are everywhere and easy to find. And they enjoy having revenge brought against them.

Stay Frosty, Rixx Javix Pirate Lord of Low Sec

Rixx,

Whoa there drama queen, come back down to earth. I understood your message perfectly well. It's your leadership skills that I significantly overestimated. I made the mistake of speaking to you like an adult. Lesson learned.

SFDirector- thanks again for being a stand up guy throughout this. SFOther too demonstrated a lot of integrity. Maybe one of you guys can coach Rixx on this gap in his skillset.

SFSenior- no hurt feelings, we'll tango again soon.

Rixx- Why you would go through all the effort to build a corporation and not give a shit about its reputation is beyond me. But now I can definitely see why Suleiman kicked you from the Tuskers. Got more respect for him after meeting you.

Person, (From SFSenior)

Wow... said a guy with total of 4 kills and 6 death.. with almost 6 billion losses.. LOL.

Oh wait... this must be an alt of yours. Your main is a super l33t pvp-er that will kill us and hunt us down. I am so scared now..

Git gud scrub... If you want to kill me, hunt me down. I am active and around in Ouelletta. If you ever undock from Station II, just catch me. I am easily caught.

And by the way, you cannot lecture about leadership skill from a guy in 3-dudes corp to a CEO of corp with over 200 active pvp-ers...

SFSenior,

Wow. That email was so packed with idiocy that I don't even know how to respond to all of it at once.

I may not run an Eve corp, but in real life I've built 3 successful startups and I hold an MBA from the business school Financial Times ranked #1 in the world in 2016 (Harvard was 2nd) and 2017 (Stanford was 2nd). One of those start-ups is in executive coaching and each of the teams I assembled in the ventures consist of high performing individuals from HBS, Wharton, and Stanford. But hey, what do i know right...anyways i'm sure this talk of 'high performing individuals' probably sounds completely alien to you so don't burden your mind with it. Imbecile.

Your attempt to imply I fear undocking is retarded given you neuted me in a belt, and particularly so given I caught you on scan before ever going to the belt. Jesus, even when you try to insult me you still look like a moron.

Anyways, I'm sure we've all had enough of this convo. Fly safe.

Person, (From Rixx)

He assembled his team in Ventures, that was his first mistake!

Person, (From SFSenior)

yup in internet, everyone is a successful CEO and graduated top if their class from ivy league.. lol amazing you have to justify your status in your fabricated real life. git gud nerds.. your mom's basement is not a suitable dwelling for 40 years old virgin

Person, (From Rixx)

Credit due for not claiming to be a Navy Seal though!

He did send us a link to a LinkedIn account, but honestly I can't be bothered.

For the past three days I've sat idly by and let the tidal wave of events surrounding comments I made over on Crossing Zebras pass over me. I've sat idly by while the Reddit threads went way up and over 1,200 comments or more. I've sat idly by while The Mittani publicly called me every name in the book, and while a certain legit ex-con raved and ranted about me everywhere, including last night on the Open Comms Show.

There is no way to "win" against a tidal wave. The best course is to let it make landfall and pick up the pieces afterwards. This is what I am doing. The more certain people speak the deeper the hole gets.

But I do start to wonder. What exactly do I owe these people? This bully who runs a prominent Eve Corporation clearly is not interested in the truth. He has insulted me, my wife, my family and everything that I've stood for in the Eve Community. He clearly has no problem with this attitude based on lies. He hates me for the wrong reasons. And before you start thinking that "hate" is a strong word, please listen to him rant and rave about me on the Open Comms show. This is a person who clearly doesn't care that everything he is mad about, everything he is clearly jealous about, is a lie.

So how much of my personal life do I owe you? This bully has stated clearly that he deserves to know everything about me, in fact he seems to believe it is his right to know. And yet, despite my attempts to be an open book and answer any question anyone has ever had - that isn't enough.

Clearly these Haters/Bullies/JealousRageMonsters share one thing in common, they are not interested in truth. They are only interested in protecting their own side of an argument they know I cannot "win". Whatever winning means in cases like this. What they all fail to realize or understand, is that I have zero interest in winning. I can't fight Pandemic Legion in-game and they know this. I can't fight 60,000 Goons, and they know this also. I actually have no interest in fighting them. I'm a low sec Pirate because I choose to be one. This is the game play I've chosen. So they know they are protected by their own largesse inside of Eve. Which is a great position from which to be a Bully, isn't it?

And so they make the assumption that such largesse protects them outside of the game as well. Which, granted, it largely does. There are no Police out here in the community. No one monitors or protects or guards against the words they choose to say. No one except me.

So, what do I owe them? Nothing. I owe them nothing.

In fact their words and actions accomplish the opposite of what they intend. Being bullied only reinforces what I have always known, you have to stand up for yourself in this world. You can't let people roll all over you. In these pages I've done just that over the past eight years, I've stood up to bullies. I've fought what I believe to be the good fight both in-game and out. I've called people to the carpet for idiocy, for aggression, for mistakes, and for picking on the little guy. And I learned a valuable lesson yesterday listening to Mittens on his show, it actually works. It was a surprise to learn just how much of my activity he is aware of and how much it bothers him. Turns out he not only reads this blog, but it bothers him. Let that sink in for a minute.

I am going to stop doing one thing however. I'm going to stop trying to appease the bullies. I'm going to stop trying to explain, when clearly they have no interest in listening. Let them rant. Let them rave. They are all clearly jealous and upset by the fact that this great community of ours reached out to me in my time of need. And that it worked. It worked when their own pet projects failed. My projects do not fail. When I set out to work with CCP I did it. When I set out to accomplish something I do it. I left the Tuskers because someone made fun of my children and leadership refused to do anything about it. So I set out to build a better Pirate corporation built around a great alliance that is WITHOUT Drama, and I did it. When the Vagabond needed its Frills back? Done. When we wanted Hats in-game? Done. When I set out to accomplish something it gets done. And yes, my GoFundMe campaigns (initiated by the community) succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. They also got done.

If you step out, if you expose yourself, if you stand up for what you believe in, you will be attacked. This is the way the world works. Eve isn't special, it works that way here too. I've always said what I believe and stood up for what I believe in, and some people do not like that. Those people tend to be very vocal, angry, jealous, and filled with rage. That's how it works sadly. There is nothing I can do about it.

Believe me when I say this is how I am in real life also. People have always told me that it can't be done. I can't be who I am. You can't create a Card Game. You can't write, produce and direct. You can't be the writer AND the creative director. You can't start your own agency. You can't do it. And yet, I did.

If you hear me and understand what I am saying then you are the silent majority. Do not despair, there are more of us than there are of them. Bullies are always outnumbered. They only thrive when intimidation works, when the threat is greater than our resolve.

A certain percentage of Eve thinks I'm a lying piece of shit? So be it.

The rest of you know the truth. I'm going to keep hanging out with you. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of the fact that you saved me when I needed it most. Nothing anyone ever says will ever change that. I'm not ashamed of how the community stood up and helped me and my family.

Every year I write an official Eveoganda blog post in regards to the CSM election and generally speaking every candidate I endorse tends to get elected. I'm not bragging, but it usually works out that way. Except last year, I really wanted Joffy to get a seat on the CSM and I failed him. That took some steam out of me frankly.

So this year I wasn't going to bother. I typically have conversations with new CSM candidates in private and I haven't done that this year at all. But, like always, I know almost everyone that is running. So I feel very strongly that the above ballet is solid, representative of a wide range of Eve play-styles, attitudes, experience, and approaches. That is a solid bunch and I have no hesitation in throwing my opinion out there publicly behind each of the choices.

Vote for who you want. But in a community where not everyone actually gets a chance to know people, I think I can offer a bit of an honest perspective that others are not always able to. I don't represent any power bloc, I represent the entire game. Certainly I always strive to see Low Sec properly represented every year, goodness knows we need some love from both the Pirate and FW side of things. But generally I tend towards balance when choosing a CSM.

So there you have it. Hopefully we'll get yet another great year of CSM representation from the group that gets elected. They have a high bar to strive towards, last year was probably the best CSM we've ever had.

A little over a year ago the Eve Community offered to help me and my family in a moment of dire need. It isn't over-stating things to say that the community saved us at the exact moment we needed saving and made it possible for us to continue putting our lives back together ourselves. A course we had been on for years that suddenly and without warning started tipping in a dark direction. There are those haters out there that will never let this moment go, they keep bringing it up every chance they get. But I remain steadfast in my own belief at the inherent goodness of this great community.

I'm not interested in re-hashing the whys and details of that moment. Suffice to say that I have felt incredibly beholden to everyone that donated since then. I re-doubled my own efforts to provide creative support for the community in the year since. I've released hundreds of pieces of artwork, provided countless logos, banners, and helped develop projects that you are not even aware of. All in a dedicated effort to return something to the community. I worked with Eve-NT and Crossing Zebras, I produced 14 videos for the Alliance Tournament (and dozens of bulletin videos), branded the Arena e-sports, helped charities, started After Hours Podcast, created videos of my own, kept blogging, held a player event, and numerous other things.

All of which culminates with us attending Fanfest this year on our own dime. No help from CCP this time. Nothing to sell. In fact, we're bringing with us a ton of awesome FREE stuff to give away for FREE. As further thanks for all the Eve Community has done for us.

That stack of Stay Frosty stickers (250) is just one of three sticker stacks we'll be bringing with us. In addition I have a smaller stack of original Rixx Javix artwork that I am also bringing with me, I can't tell you what it is without spoiling the surprise, but it is awesome. I'm also having FOUR original Art Postcards printed that I will be handing out as well. Again, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but they are gorgeous. Not only that but each Postcard features lore-based art on the back. Each one different and featuring additional original art. Four color printing on both sides with a nice UV coating. In addition I think Liz and I are also getting some original Rixx Art t-shirts made, but those are going to be just for us. (Sorry, I'm not a rich person.)

All of which is available in limited quantity, so apologies up front about that. I'll do my best to spread things around, but we are certainly not bringing enough for everyone.

This is the culmination of my own promise to myself last year, to pay back the generosity of this great community of ours as best I can. But it also serves another purpose as well. It serves as a reminder of what could be a great store experience based around Eve, there is no reason why awesome stickers, cool Postcards, unique t-shirts and other amazing items are not available to the greater community STILL. After years and years of fighting the good fight for this to happen, I've finally realized that it might never happen.

And while I still can't sell you Eve based materials, I can provide the next best thing, which is what the Rixx Javix Store is all about. After Fanfest I will be re-doubling my efforts with the store and providing even more "gamer" related merchandise and a place for Eve Alliances to sell their own branded merchandise.

In the meantime, if you do get one of these items at Fanfest, be sure to show it around and ask, "Why can't we have things like this in our store!?!"

Why indeed.

PS: The word "FREE" is used in this post as a counter to the crowd of people that constantly accuse me of trying to profit from the Eve Community. I just wanted to be clear about it since these people do not tend to read the entire post and take things out of context. I'm being forced to dumb-down my writing a bit in response. That's all. I'm sure most of you knew this already.

This is my Fan Art player presentation at Fanfest 2015. I am the first non-CCP affiliated artist to EVER officially work with CCP Games. At that Fanfest my posters were sold as a pilot program to see how well they would be received. They sold more than any other item in the Eve Store. I missed a lot of Fanfest to sell posters because I felt it was worth it. Those in charge of such things selected a company in California called QMx Online to sell the posters thru, despite QMx not having the ability to ship Internationally. I was happily under contract with CCP and the contract seemed fair. CCP would share with me monthly sales reports against which I would be given a small percentage of those sales. After six years of trying to climb that mountain, I had finally made it.

Except I never did see one of those Monthly Sales Reports. Not one. To this day I only have one person's word for how many of the posters have been sold. At least up until January 2016.

January 2016, at the height of my own desperation, and at the end of the debacle known as the Fountain War Kickstarter, and after months of not being paid and seeing the posters being sold at Eve Vegas - I was told the contract would be cancelled. As part of some over-arching "house cleaning", but - and this is important - CCP would buy my posters from me for a flat fee. In addition, and at the time this was extremely important to me, they'd also like to buy eight MORE posters from me. I was heartbroken that the contract was going to be cancelled, but not surprised after the KS had failed. There are always consequences. But at least I would see something out of it, and as you all know, at the time I really could've used the additional money.

Today, a year later, none of those things happened. I put together a proposal for additional posters, for buyouts, and nothing came of them. The contract was cancelled, under what I consider at best false pretenses, and I was left with nothing. The posters are still being sold right now and have been for the entire year, and at last year's Fanfest and Eve Vegas again.

For those of you out there that think this is about money, let me be even more clear. In total I made right around $600 selling posters with CCP. 1,100 posters were sold at Fanfest in 2015 from which I saw nothing. This has never been about the money. For me this has always been about my own love for Eve and the passion I have for the community. Plus, y'know, thirty years of proven professional marketing and creative success behind me. Our game should be bigger. It should be more involved and more open and more tolerable and more encompassing. And I believe that art can have a huge role in that. But it doesn't.

Does that strike anyone else as odd?

For all the talk last week from Hilmar about how well CCP is doing, let's not forget one little guy in Pennsylvania that got screwed over at the one moment in his life when he could least afford it.

This isn't about money. It isn't about any legal issues. Or copyright. Or Intellectual Property. I don't want money, or anything. I've even worked with CCP since the contract was cancelled. They called me to do the London office opening and I got paid for that work. If CCP calls me tomorrow to work with them on another project I would in a heartbeat.

What do I want then?

Nothing. I don't want anything.

This Fanfest I'm going to enjoy as a player. Just me and my friends hanging out all week in Iceland.

I'm looking forward to it. I have a lot of FREE goodies to hand out.

PS: A few people seem to have gotten the idea that I am printing my own versions of the posters and bringing them with me to Fanfest to give away for free. As much as I think that would be an awesome idea, I simply can't afford to do that. What I am bringing is a bunch of stickers and some other things to give away for FREE. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

The Rixx Javix Store

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Eve + Propaganda = Eveoganda. Your one-stop Eve Magazine and gateway to the Eve Community, for over seven years Eveoganda has been raising Hell, taking names and openly mocking things that need to be mocked. All in the name of fun, adventure and internet spaceships.

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